I'm going to take a second look at a mare I'm considering buying later today. She is OBESE and I'm concerned about EMS. I voiced these concerns to the owner and he assured me she is fat because he was way overfeeding her and she wasnt getting worked.

Obviously I will have a pre-purchase exam done if I decide I like her. My question is, if it turns out that she does have a metabolic disorder or her x-rays show signs of laminitis, should he cover the cost of the exam, or is it my expense either way? Would it be wrong of me to ask ahead of time for him to agree to over the cost of the exam if those issues are found?

I would expect to pay the entire cost as the buyer of the horse, and I'd also expect to dictate exactly what gets covered by the PPE. It would be one thing if the seller was promising you that the horse does *not* have a metabolic disorder...but it doesn't sound to me like the seller has actually explored this route - sounds like he just assumed that the horse pudgied-up because of inactivity and excess feeding. If he was promising you this, it might be reasonable to ask him to foot the bill for a test (or to give you the results of the test that *he* had performed, as a part of the horse's medical records).

In this case, it sounds like the questions about a possible metabolic disorder come from you, so probably the test will also be out of your pocket.

Everything is negotiable, though - if the owner is conscientious he might be willing to split those charges...that way if the sale falls through due to a metabolic problem, at least he'd know about that and be able to manage it better than he has been.

Yes, its the Clyde X mare. Did you see the ad? I may have been hasty to call her cresty, she may just have a fat neck. I've been doing some internet research (which is funny because I always tell my clients not to do that) and I've seen a lot of cresty neck pictures and hers isnt that bad in comparison. She does have the fat deposits over her body though...

I missed the ad. I think drafts are at risk for EMS a little more than the hot-blooded horses - and if that guy wasn't feeding her a TON then I don't see how she'd get all those fat deposits. Even with a "kind of" cresty neck, I'd still want the vet to look into the EMS at a PPE...

I want to say he told me he was feeding 12lbs a day of 12%. Swears she was near underweight when he got her. Whatever. I have a hard time trusting people. Do you happen to know what all is involved with testing for EMS?

I had a crash course in this stuff because when the horse that is now mine came into the barn for the lesson program (he wasn't mine then, but I was considering making him so) he had a thick wavy coat and went through vast amounts of water. I have to keep two water buckets in his stall for over-night, even now. We thought he might have Cushing's and got him tested for that. He came up negative, and then his weird coat fell out and didn't come back, so it looks like that was just from the neglect he'd been undergoing before he came into the barn. And he just goes through a lot of water. I paid an extra $150 for a comprehensive panel of blood tests at the PPE just in case though. They didn't turn up anything weird, and now I have a good set of reference points in case he gets sick later.

What I'm curious about is why the heck this guy kept feeding her like a pig when she was already fat...it's not cheap to do that!

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